The health care community is particularly sensitive to the collection and disposal of waste materials in hospitals in the wake of recent and growing concern regarding infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and AIDS. It is now more important than ever that contaminated materials remain sealed or secured so as to not cause persons handling them to become infected. Containers used for holding such waste are presently incinerated for health and safety reasons and generally are constructed of cardboard or light plastics. However, since these containers often hold "sharps", e.g., hypodermic needles and other pointed objects, leaking body fluids, in combination with a threat of puncturing the skin of hospital workers, are serious problems.
One prior art method of waste disposal often employed by hospitals is to use "red" bags. Such bags generally comprise polyethylene which is dyed red in color and inserted into a stainless steel can. Contaminated materials, including hypodermic needles and the like, are then inserted into the red bag. When the bag is full, it is usually removed by hospital workers and carried to the incinerator. Since the bag is easily punctured by sharp implements, hospital workers are at serious risk of injury and disease.
One modern attempt at solving this problem is to use corrugated boxes having a polyethylene liner. These boxes enable contaminated material to be inserted into the polyethylene bag within the box. When full, both the box and the polyethylene bag are carried to an incinerator for disposal. While the corrugated box gives substantial additional protection to the bag for preventing the penetration of sharps, there are several shortcomings. One difficulty associated with using the corrugated box method, is that hospital workers often come into imminent contact with the box during handling. Since the outside of the box often is sometimes contaminated by leakage and spillage of body fluids, this contact presents a hazard. While it has been suggested that holes could be punched in the sides of these cartons for handling by hospital workers, this would require that the fingers of the workers be inserted into the box, again exposed to contaminated material and sharps. It has also been suggested to attach a separate grip to the side of the box for safer handling. However, this attempted solution is understood to weaken the box, and generate local stress points for tearing of the corrugated material. The consequences of a torn handle and a box spilled of its contents makes this solution highly undesirable. A further attempt at this problem has been to provide a false bottom to the boxes so that sharps thrown directly into the box can not easily puncture the bottom. Such a construction has presented several problems, however. The boxes are understood to be more difficult to assemble from their knockdown condition. Additionally, the volume of the box is generally less than it would be without a false bottom.
Accordingly, a safer method of disposing and incinerating hospital waste is needed. There is also a need for a contaminated material container having a strong handle for carrying up to about 100 lbs. of contaminated waste. This handle should be protected from contamination during use and should enable a worker to readily pick up the box without having to contact the remainder of the outside surface of the box.